We’ve been enjoying all of our themes and Skill Builder series this year, but many of us are particularly excited by this month: Hobby How-Tos. All of us being kids at heart, we still have a soft spot for things like scale modeling, rocketry, tabletop gaming, Legos, R/C vehicles, model railroading, miniatures and action figure modding, cosplay, papercraft, you name it. We’ve covered these hobbies in the past, especially during last year’s Hobby Month. But this month, we want to delve deeper into the building aspects, the tools and techniques behind these hobbies, many of the skills are applicable across hobby disciplines. Since it’s the month of Halloween and the release of our Toys and Games issue (Volume 28) is just around the corner, there will be all sorts of fun tie-in potential there.

As usual, we’d love to hear what you’d like us to cover. What hobbies are you interested in getting into that you need some guidance on? What specific modeling techniques are you looking to learn? Please let us know in comments.

Gareth Branwyn is a freelancer writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor for Boing Boing and WINK Books. And he has a new best-of writing collection and “lazy man’s memoir,” called Borg Like Me.

Anonymous

YES! I remember Boy’s Life had a section called “Hobby Hows”. I loved it. Super useful little tricks and tips you’d never think of. Do that!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones

Wow, Boy’s Life. I loved that as a kid. I found out about my longest-running hobby, rocketry, through an advert there. Sort of . . . . I didn’t believe the advert, because I was a suspicious little kid reared on Mad Magazine satires. It took stumbling across someone’s lost Estes catalog to realize that there was something enormous and sophisticated behind the breathless advertisement.

I probably have a million tips on rocketry. I used to be pretty good at painting fantasy and SF minis, but not at the level where I’d give advice.

I have a horrible image of the modern equivalent of Hobby Hows being Cheat Codes.